satkuru.com » outing

Zorbing away at Titiwangsa

satkuru — Mon, 06 Apr 2009 04:14:32 +0000

F1 was crazy last night. It was soooo short ! but the excitement was over the roof when the cars stopped in the middle of the road ! LOL

… and as for EPL, Machedaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa ! What a curler ! The battle of the last minute goals, ROFL

Btw, i have just wrote in my entry for Malaysian Dream Girl and this time the girls were in Royal Selangor for their first outdoor photoshoot

For those who have no idea what a zorb is, it basically the same as a hamster running in it’s plastic ball. The difference is, for us the ball is cushioned by air in the middle. The it’s to refrain hard impacts as we roll down the hill. To make things more exciting the participants are strapped on to the wall of the zorb. Thus as it roll down, so do you >.

If you are wondering why don’t the description match the picture above. That’s because it’s a water zorb. Water zorb is identical to a hamster ball.

Don’t be deceived with the photos because water zorbing is a waste of time and money. I will you why later.

So it was a bright Sunday morning and 26 people gathered in an excitement somewhere in Titiwangsa.

I couldn’t find the place at first and i called Bernard for the exact location. He said once you see 2 plastic balls on the left of the road means you are at the right place >.

Just as i described earlier there’s air in between the 2 layers in the zorb. Since it can accomodate 2 people at once, Bernard and i were paired up.

A few days before this event, Esther emailed me some coupon which i am suppose to bring so that the price of the zorb would be only RM 15. After finalizing the payment and all, we all waited to take turns.

Esther immediately said she was the first to go.

The ball was then rolled a slight slope and was held till Esther and her friend got strapped in. The slope isn’t that steep compared to the ones i have seen in New Zealand but nevertheless for 15 ringgit what do you expect? The distance it would roll is about 70 meters.

The instructor will help you out with the harness if you have hard time strapping into it. The girls were all observing for some reason but i am not sure why Bernard looks excited. HAhahahahahaha.

Once Esther was ready, they rolled down the ball and all i could hear were screams from Esther and her friend … who is a guy. ROFL.

Knowing that there’s 26 people and it would take eons before Bernard and i would have a chance. We decided to go for the water zorb first. Nicolette and Alice joined us.

It’s not that near from the dry zorb so we drove over to the other side of the lake.

Bernard was the first one to go since there weren’t anyone there. Water zorbing is also RM 15. And as you can see, first you would need to get into that plastic and they would pump in air till it’s full. They would then further pump in using a smaller pump.

It’s seriously not easy !

There’s no grip …. inside and outside. So all you do is fall …. and fall in the most awkward manner >.

Bernard was even luckier because when he was trying to find the inner hamster in him, a TV crew recorded the whole thing, LOL.

We escaped from the rest because we want to spare the shame but Bernard went two steps back by showing himself to the country, hahaha.

Alice was really funny, LOL. Cause she did try to run as much as possible and from far, she does look like a hamster

You see, we knew by going for the water zorb first, the rest won’t be seeing us like this. But when Nicolette spotted them walking from afar, she immediately said it was her turn after Alice @_@!!

So i was left to be the last one.

Nicolette didn’t last long cause she just doesn’t seem to go anywhere and it’s seriously tiring though you try to move it around. So she sat and enjoyed the scenery. But then again, she wasn’t wearing her specs. Hmmm now i wondered what was she even looking, lol.

By the time she was done, probably half of the whole group was already there and everyone was waiting for me to get in.

You know how people would say, “Save the best for last” ? Well this was one of those moments, wuuuwuuuuuuu

Have you seen a buffalo falling ? There you go ….. >.

What a way to start my water zorbing experience. At one point while falling i thought the zorb was gonna burst or something.

Once you are in the ball you basically can’t hear much unless someone screams at you. And when i fell i could hear clearly everyone laughing at me @_@! So that’s how hard everyone laughed.

I tried everything to move it like a hamster ball but the harder i tried, the more weird i fell. If only the outer layer of the ball had some groove so it will move against the water rather than spinning on the same spot.

But it was really fun !

Esther’s one was the shortest i think, LOL. At one point she even tried to escape even when she was in the middle of the lake >.

After capturing Esther’s fall, Alice, Nic, Bernard and i went back for the normal zorb.

The problem with 2 big buffalos entering the zorb is, when one gets in, the second one would have a hard time cause the hole is even smaller @_@!

… and i got freaking stuck, blardy hell and Bernard who was already inside had to pull me in.

We were too heavy that they had to push us down, ROFLMAO. Actually they do push for everyone since the slope isn’t that steep.

I know i screamed a lot, Bernard too and the momentum was madness. Imagine 2 of us causing the ball to roll down even faster than the rest. swt swt swt.

This is a small taste of what’s there in Gemas, Negeri Sembilan as i was told that the zorb there is longer …. 250m down >.

1 minute of spinning.

According to the fella who organizers this, for the first 20 seconds you would be screaming happily but after that till the end, you would be dying to get out, lol.

All in all the experience was great !!! Would definitely recommend it to anyone for sure.

Zorbing anyone ?

The Chronicles of Cambodia 2: The dark side of Phnom Penh

satkuru — Sun, 15 Feb 2009 20:16:52 +0000

I was expecting to wake up to the sound of my alarm but instead i had the privilege of waking up to the sound of karaoke duet from a nearby marriage ceremony. I just lied there listening for the next ten minutes until it was my turn to wash up. I then briefly packed my bags as we would be rushing to catch the bus for Siem Reap once we are back from the Killing Fields.

We then went to the girl’s lair just to find out they haven’t got ready. Wasn’t a big surprise though, lolololol.

We all then rushed down to catch the van to the Toul Sleng museum but stumbled upon the wedding that i mentioned earlier. We came down in time for the bridegroom and his ‘rombongan’ to bring gifts for the bride. I think the folks were suprised to see so many photographers as they walked to the bride’s place. LOL.

We all then jumped into the van and off we went.

Today was all about history which made Cambodia what it is today. Many have asked why Phnom Penh first ? Visiting the Toul Sleng museum and the Killing Fields at the end of your trip wouldn’t be ideal. I rather be enjoying myself towards the end and not being disturbed by how one million plus Cambodian were brutally murdered during the Pol Pot regime. I was glad to have known my mum’s friend’s brother who has been residing in Cambodia for the past 15 years and he told me which places are a must go and we managed to cover those places in a short span of time

Besides that, feedbacks from a few more friends who traveled a few weeks before me, also mentioned which places aren’t worth the time.

Toul Sleng museum which was about 10-15mins from the place we stayed was a former school before being turned into one of the worst torture/detention/interrogation centre that i have heard of. We had an english speaking guide who explained every single detail of this place. Though it was hard to capture with her heavy Cambodian slang but after a while, i could roughly understand.

This place was actually used to get information from anyone who was against the ruling of Pol Pot. Previous politicians too were all detained in this centre, together with their family.

These were the few detention rooms which had the higher ranking officers of the previous government detained. In each room there was a bed, mattress and iron bucket for the detainees waste.

The first room had a picture of a tortured detainee on the bed and the guide explained how they were tortured until the information was retrieved. The cold breeze blowing from the nearby windows did sent chills down my spine. When she asked us to look up at the ceiling, there were still traces of blood. which splattered from one end to the other.

Others were tortured in other manners like hanging them upside down from the wooden pole with their hands tied to the back. These wooden poles were used by students to exercise when it was still a school back then. If the detainee doesn’t cooperate their heads are then dipped into the huge jar which is filled with human excrement.

In the next block, smaller holding places were built out of bricks. Family members are kept in these cells shackled to the floor. They aren’t allowed to speak unless they were allowed to and seeing how dark the place can be even in the noon, one could wonder how dark it gets when night falls. And all of them just waiting for their turn to be executed.

Some of the detainees who couldn’t stand being tortured did jump off from higher floors to end their miseries and this made the people of Pol Pot placing barbed wires all around the building to prevent anyone from jumping off. They even hooked it to an electric cable which would electrocute anyone who touches it.

In the last section of the museum, mugshots of all detainees were displayed. At one point it became disturbing because it was a sea of people staring at you. The way the photo was taken for some of the detainees were really inhuman. Instead of having their identification card pinned to their shirt, it was pinned to their neck.

We were then asked if we would like to go to the first floor of the building but had to politely decline as we had a super tight schedule to follow.

At this point i was already rubbing my arms for heat cause it was considerably cold in Phnom Penh. So i asked the guide if this was normal and she said yes it was. Since we will be in Siem Reap later that night which is way up north, i asked her what about Siem Reap, is it this cold ?

She replied, “Oh it’s like Paris …”

Great and i don’t have any long pants …

Next was the Killing Fields. This was where thousands were brought to be executed. This particular building was built in the remembrance of those who perished in the Killing Fields. In the middle of the building lies see through shelves which contained the skulls and bones of the victims.

We followed the path on ourselves around the Killing fields. Along the way there were explanation on what happened at that particular place when it was still the Killing Fields.

The huge holes you see all over the place are actually where the people were gathered into before being shot. And there were so many of this bunkers.

Babies and small children were brought to this particular tree. They were then swung or slammed on to the tree.

… to be continued

A Moment with Your Kakiis

satkuru — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 17:50:04 +0000

Two more days to the dateline and here i am trying out ‘A moment with your Kakiis’. I should have done it quite some time back but because i have been away from my notebook most of the time, i finally have the chance to browse through the pictures that would be suitable for this entry.

I definitely had to post this picture up.

Full House

The expression on Mr Leong’s face is definitely the reason why this picture is on top of the pile This outing with my Kakiis was significant. Why ? Cause we were all out to celebrate Mr Leong’s birthday as well as Miss Tan’s farewell but their food never arrived. In fact Aaron had 2 rounds and yet their food was no where to be seen. It was more than 2 hours until the waiter brought it over. Talk about service -_-! LOL

The picture above was taken while waiting. We found these black frame specs for sale and decided to take a couple of photos with it just to buy time

I could carry on posting tonnes of pictures but i decided to put a handful so ease my beloved bandwidth, LOL.

Now if you are wondering why these pictures appeared out of the blue, well because i was browsing thru nuffnang’s blog and realized that there’s a competition going on whereby you post up a picture of your kakiis. So what is Kakiis all about ? It’s a local social networking site whereby you can stay connected to your friends via the net as well as mobile phone.

Kakiis.com

Besides that you can even share photos and video thru PC and phone. Nowadays sites like this are definitely making it easier for all of us to communicate with one another anytime any where.

I took this opportunity to actually dig out and post all my old and recent outings with my Kakiis LOL.

Sushi King outing

For the rest of the Kakiis pictures, click ‘read more’

Chillis

Changing tyre

Shout Out Birthday Bash

Nipple Island

Annual Dinner @ E&O

Beauty & the Beast and Istana Budaya

satkuru — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 18:41:53 +0000

So after committing myself to attend a musical which i had no idea how it would be like since this was my first, the day finally came and boy was i surprise on how a musical could be as entertaining as the movie if not better. It was Beauty and the Beast and i thought what could probably go wrong since i loved the cartoon. Hours before leaving for the show, my hopes were shot down when i was told that this musical isn’t highly acclaimed in other countries but i think in the end it all comes down to personal preference. Anyway that’s besides the point. The show was awesome in short.

I was accompanied by Speaker friend, Lingster and Kawan lama dari zaman batu (Jiin, Ling, Charng) …. LOL and of course WernSern

Before the show we all gathered at Chinoz on the Park for a light dinner and it was a major ‘potong-stim’ experience. The service was way below par and don’t let me get started with the price. I wouldn’t be ranting about the price had the service been acceptable.

Charng ordered some salad thingy and she got this …. i am not sure about the description of the dish but she definitely wasn’t expecting her salad to be like this, LOL. As for me, they didn’t have what i wanted from the menu and i was forced to choose something else.

I had soup, Jiin had some cake, Lingster had some prawns and Wern Sern had salad. It was green bean soup i think or was it spinach soup ? Which ever it is, i initially asked for mushroom soup but it seems the kitchen ran out of that -_-”

I think Wern Sern was the only one who enjoyed his dinner, JIin came in second since hers was dessert and not the main meal All this happened in the span of forty minutes or less before the show. So we shoved everything down our throats before asking for the bill.

When the bill arrived, everyone was poorer by at least two red notes and mind you the meal wasn’t much. We even opted for sky juice. But all this faded off when we finally got our butts to the hall. I personally love the ever changing sets on the stage. They made really good use of the space given and everyone acted so well. I am not gonna elaborate much about the storyline as i am sure most of you would have known already. Personal rating would be a staggering nine upon ten. LOL.

Just when i thought musical/orchestra would be out of the way for quite sometime since it’s not easy to gather people let alone attend one, i was off again ….

This outing was slightly different cause instead of having the tickets before hand, we decided to get it off the counter …. and guess what, the tickets were sold out. It was a show by the MPO at KLCC and they were playing Beethoven this time.

Bernard reached there first and he called me saying there weren’t any tickets left, even the next day had none to spare -_-” So on the way to KLCC, Dolphin suggested Istana Budaya and KLPac as an alternative. Why there’s an alternative ? That’s because all of us were dressed up and they would wanna go somewhere, lol -_-” Oh and William was also in KLCC waiting for all of us but weren’t told about the tickets till we reached. His face was really dark as he walked towards my car, hahaha. Bernard later on got into my car as well and we went to KLPAC …. just to find out there weren’t any shows -_-”

Then we drove to Istana Budaya and found out there’s an orchestra show on Movie themes called the ‘Musical Journey Concert with National Symphony Orchestra’ and we got ourselves the tickets. We were like a bunch of desperados -_-”

We headed back to KLCC for dinner.

Since Chinoz on the Park was a washout the first time, i suggested The Apartment which was just beside Chinoz.

Bernard

William

Dolphin

Just when i thought my luck with the Apartment would be better compared to Chinoz, i was wrong -_-” There was nothing to shout about when it came to the food nor the service. The outlet over at the Curve is definitely better than this.

There’s just something about the restaurants on that row in KLCC. Probably i am jinxed to step into any of those outlets. I think i would be better off at McD or KFC.

We then left for Istana Budaya again and for thirty ringgit, we sat like 4 rows from the stage, lol. Personal favourite was when they played Phantom of the Opera, the songs really got ‘kick’. The conductor was very lively as well and mind you he is a local unlike MPO which was conducted by a foreigner. I have nothing against foreigners but i was quite surprised on how our local conductor performed. He even sang back to the Saprona singer Cecilia Yap at one point, lol kinda cheeky.

They played Sound of Music and William started doing his moves which we used to perform back in Melaka days for our Early Entrance Program in MMU.

Oh and did i say we had to sing Negaraku before the show started ? Hehehe i can’t even remember when was the last time i sang Negaraku

All and all i thought the show was not bad. The second was definitely better. Personal rating would be six and half upon ten. Don’t ask me where did the half came from …. LOL. I just felt it deserved another half rather being six

After the show i was forced to make two U-turns and go round a lake to get to this place. William and Dolphin were just in awe with the colours of the wheel. I on the other hand kept my eye on the ice cream man, LOL

Dunhill brought classical music to my ears

satkuru — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:22:49 +0000

Just got back from Redang and i am still swaying around as though i am still at sea @_@

I was never a fan of classical music and i remembered how my dad used to play the cds that he got from Reader’s Digest and i would go bonkers. In fact at times i would show tantrums *the joy of being a kid* just to get the song changed or the cd player switched off.

But all that slowly changed and i started to appreciate classical music but not to the extend where i go gaga over it.

During my younger years i remembered how much time i wasted sitting in front of the tele box watching shows after shows on either tv1, tv2 o tv3. There’s one particular session where i definitely wouldn’t miss it for anything in the world and that’s the Dunhill Double BlockBuster. Every Thursday and Friday i will be glued to the tele watching what ever they had to offer and i tell you those movies were top notch, i mean for that time ler. It brought the world of time traveling to me and it made a strong impact that i even asked my dad why aren’t we going back in time when the speed of the car touched 88, lol. If you still haven’t got any clue what was i talking about, it’s Back to the Future. Besides that, Robocop was another one which i followed religiously.

So just like those movies, Dunhill brought Johann Strauss to my living room. I remembered vividly that it was shown for 4 weeks on every Thursday and Friday. After a quick check on wiki, i found out that it’s called “The Strauss Family” and it’s a seven part mini series. The storyline kept me on my toes for the whole month and that’s where i learned about sibling rivalry The song that caught my attention was composed by Johann Strauss II and it’s called The Blue Danube.

For some reason, i didn’t manage to video record it like what i did for Back to the Future and Robocop. The song was never heard again till a decade later when p2p was widely used and i somehow stumbled upon the song. To those who have no idea what the Blue Danube is, here’s a sample

Speaking of classical songs, a few weeks back i attended the Harp in French Music which was organized by the Penang State Symphony Orchestra & Chorus which was held at Dewan Seri Pinang. I didn’t manage to catch the first part of the show and had to stand at the entrance till that particular piece was finished.

Before the show, i was at the ferry point waiting for Dolphin to appear from the sea but because of rough currents, she took longer than expected. So while waiting, i got bored and started snapping random pictures at a nearby construction site.

Was suppose to go on a food hunt around Penang but time didn’t permit. We barely had half an hour before the show and we rushed to a nearby mamak stall to have dinner. Dolphin ordered their speciality which was torn roti canai with chopped chicken. It tasted something like scrambled murtabak, lol.

I on the other hand, ordered Garlic Naan and Chicken Tika. So filling our stomaches, we dashed off to the venue. When we reached there, the first part of the show was already on the way and no one was allowed to move around in the auditorium. The late comers had to wait at the entrance till that piece finished.

When we finally got in, we choose the sittings which wasn’t too far from the stage and waited for the show to restart as it went into an interval. The whole show lasted till 10pm and the arrangements of the songs were really ear pleasing. The only ‘potong stim’ part was the small kids running around in the middle of the show and one particular kid ran up and down the aisle i was sitting beside with a plastic bag. Now how annoying is that, with the sound of plastic bag being introduced into orchestra. They should ban all kids for this kinda show or simply cage them outside till their parents finally noticed that their kids were no where nearby. But overall the show was good and i would really look forward for more show like this in the near future. Futhermore the price of the tickets sold were reasonable. In fact, they even had student price.

After the show, we met up with some of the participants in the orchestra itself. Dolphin met up with her coursemates and friends

Chen Seng and Stefan so happened to be my ex-schoolmates and they both were in the orchestra

This Sunday will be meeting up with ‘the Gayaz’ for Beauty and the Beast Musical @ KLPac. Anyone out there going ?

Kek Lok Si, Laksa, Ice Kacang

satkuru — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 13:21:39 +0000

Last Saturday before Shout Out’s birthday bash, Elvie asked if any of us could show her around in Penang. At first i didn’t know who else she called to meet up with her. I was still in bed when Elvie said she was an hour away from Penang. Moments after that, Wendy too decided to tag along, lol.

We waited in front of City Bayview for Elvie before heading straight to Farlim for laksa.

Elvie

Wendy

Elvie gave a miserable 6.5/10 for the laksa. Wendy on the other hand added extra spices on her own, LOL. After that we didn’t know where to go, so we ended up going to Kek Lok Si. It has been so many years since i have gone there and i can’t remember a single thing @_@

One of the main halls and probably the biggest i think. I saw so many people snapping a picture of it so i tagged along. Thankfully it wasn’t pouring when we were there though part of Penang looked as though it was gonna have a heavy down pour.

We came across a pond filled with tortoises and a lot of people were feeding them with vege which was conveniently being sold there.

We saw this tower which we ended up climbing right to the top when we were there

There was this huge place where the walls around it were all beautifully decorated. It was all over, even the ceiling

Before reaching the tower, we came across this huge bell and all of us took turns to bang on it. Elvie went first.

Of the three of us, i think i was the most tension-ed. I kept looking left and right if there’s anyone and after i rang the bell, i ran off -_-”

Then it was Wendy’s turn. The picture looked like she was wishing for something while ringing the bell, lol

While my DSLR got hijacked, i used my trusty phone to capture pictures. After all, i did start off taking pictures from my Z800i which made up more than half of my photo gallery. But at the rate i am going around snapping with my DSLR, it should dwarf that amount in no time

We then climbed the tower i mentioned earlier. Flights of stairs just kept on appearing one after another @_@

There weren’t many people up there so we decided to take a group photo

Since the weather was scotching hot, we ended up at Penang Road for a bowl of ice kacang and cendol. And if that wasn’t enough, we then went for Pandan Coconuts before heading home to wash up and rest. Later that night we all went to Shout Out’s Birthday Bash which i will write about in the next entry